The Business of Sports February 25, 2010, 3:38PM EST

NBC's Olympic Gold

Despite a lack of real-time events, NBC primetime coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics is up 21% over Turin

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1. Winter Olympics Wrap-Up

With the signature Winter Olympic events yet to come—the women's figure skating finale and the men's hockey gold medal matchup—NBC is nonetheless averaging a 14.7 final Nielsen rating (26.3 million viewers) for its primetime coverage of the Vancouver Games, up 21% from Turin in 2006, according to Nielsen and network figures. Online, NBC's Winter Games-specific site is generating far fewer unique visitors than rivals Yahoo! Sports (YAHOO) and ESPN, largely due to the subscriber fees charged and a dearth of live, real-time events. Regardless, look for the Winter Olympics on NBC platforms to finish strong.

On the merchandising side, Vancouver officials are "predicting a Winter Olympics record in merchandise revenue and a big boost to the ongoing struggle to balance the budget," according to the Toronto Globe & Mail. The Vancouver Organizing Committee's (VANOC) merchandising projection is C$54 million ($54 million), higher than the Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000 and well over the C$35 million ($33 million) earned in Salt Lake City in 2002. Regional officials are hoping that higher-than-anticipated merchandising totals will help whittle away at the C$1.5 million ($1.4 million) organizers were forced to refund for lost weather-related standing-room tickets at Whistler Mountain.

The ubiquitous $10 red mittens remain the most sought-after merchandise item from these Games; more than three million pairs have already been sold. For American pieces, the $75 Polo Ralph Lauren (RL) beanie worn by U.S. athletes at the Opening Ceremony will go down as the must-have fashion accessory of these Games.

At the hockey rink, after Sunday night's insta-classic game between the U.S. and Canada, the gloves have definitely come off between two teams entirely made up of players from the NHL in the scramble for the gold. Should they meet again, look for a Massacre on Ice instead of a Miracle.

NHL Haggling

When it comes to dealing with NHL brass, however, the players seem completely united: They want to be able to keep competing in the Winter Olympics indefinitely.

During a joint Thursday press conference with International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made it clear that whether the NHL will allow players to participate in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games is still very much on thin ice. Bettman stressed that the league's participation in Turin and Vancouver "took place under the auspices of a collective bargaining agreement that will be replaced before the 2014 Olympics."

"This costs us money, this disrupts our season," Bettman said of the NHL's participation. "We're here because we believe it's good for the game. … We have turned over, for two weeks, control of the most important assets in our game, and that is our players. … You do have to take a step back at ground level and look at the impact it has on our season and what we can do about it."

The NHL will likely use future participation in the Winter Games as leverage during the league's next round of collective bargaining with its players; The New York Daily News notes that the NHL "waited until the 11th hour to commit to" the 1998 Nagano Olympics, "another indication this will become part of" upcoming CBA negotiations.

2. Extreme Sports Gets Huge Air from Vancouver

We can't shut the book on the Vancouver Olympic Games without noting the great snowy inroads winter action sports have made (thanks largely to Olympic support), both in terms of participation and merchandising.